China Set to Take the Initiative in Climate Talks

According to Reutersand CNN, China tries to persuade developed nations to transfer more technology to developing countries to battle climate change and environmental issues in the two-day climate change conference in Beijing.

From AP Photo

From Friday, Beijing hosts a two-day conference to promote a new multi-billion-dollar international fund to invest in climate-friendly technology for the Third World, and it wants rich economies to devote as much as 1 percent of their GDPs to helping poor countries fight global warming.

China wants the clean energy and industry technology plan high in negotiations for a new climate change pact. Without such help, it argues, the smokestacks of developing countries will belch ever more greenhouse gases into the air.

But Beijing’s new demands also carry a wider message: that it is shedding its role as a retiring if high-stakes player at the table of environmental diplomacy. It wants a bigger say.

China’s greenhouse gas emissions have caught up with the United States and will not fall any time soon, a top Chinese official said on Wednesday, while warning of a huge economic blow from global warming.

The comments from Xie Zhenhua, a deputy chief of the National Development and Reform Commission who steers climate change policy, marked China’s first official acknowledgement that it could already be the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluter.